We All Forget, Sometimes
by PallasStar
Summary: Valentine's Day regretfully arrives while Kagome is living a split, busy life between Past and Present. How will the unspoken state of her relationship with Inuyasha affect the both of them on this day? Rated T for language only. Complete.


"**We All Forget, Sometimes..."**

**By: PallasStar**

When you're fighting youkai, searching for fragments of the Shikon no Tama, and busy preparing for the next attack Naraku schemes up while trying to study Trig and English to pass highschool and keep an active social life, _daily_, a girl never has much time to regard the small things she used to think were important. It's hard to even remember them at all.

So imagine Kagome's surprise while rushing out of the house to go to the past, her mother called to her to "have a happy Valentine's day!"

She slowed down at pace, and stopped right before reaching the lip of the well.

_Valentine's Day... ? _The girl thought back to her calendar, where she saw she had marked the day by circling the "14th" in red marker when she first got it. _That's right. It is today, isn't it?_

She sighed, blowing her bangs up with her bottom lip jutting out and cheeks plumping up with air.

_Great. I bet everyone is going to be wondering about the Valentines I _didn't_ get._

This was the last thing Kagome needed on her plate... A reminder of the modern life she had missed out on, of the relationship she wanted but could never be, of the pain she never wanted but experienced every time _he_ went to go chase after _her_... after she'd already broken down to Sango about it three days before.

The girl put almost all her normal living aside for the journey in Sengoku Jidai, save for schooling and some annual celebrations with her family. She had no typical experiences of a fifteen year old girl of her time. No weekend movie outings, no splurging allowances at the mall, no sleep overs or slumber parties, no part-time job, no getting to play at crowds of boys, no first kiss... worst of all she had no romantic relationship and had not even been on an official date, while all her friends were exploring the opposite sex for the first time.

And they would talk about it. Constantly.

That might have been the worst part of it all.

Meanwhile, there was no time for her to have a relationship _or_ a Valentine; how could she? Worse off, there was no_ one _with which could have a reasonably healthy and feasible relationship, going back and forth between centuries for weeks or a month at a time and all.Well... there _was, _she supposed. He just was too busy pining over an undead woman and an old obligation to realize that she existed. An obligation which a part of Kagome had come to understand despite past resentment.

But she could never tell Eri, Yuka, and the rest. So she had to lie. And as long as she had to lie, the more they would grill her and the more frustrated she would continue to be.

"Aaaagh!" She pitched her yellow backpack over her shoulder, and started up the inside of the well. "It's not fair!"

Kagome was not looking forward to going back to home next week. It wasn't like her to be irritated, but frankly she didn't want to listen to all of the Valentine's day stories her friends would be waiting to spill onto her and one another. They'd surely ask her how her day went. She could say she had the most wonderful time, with a new boyfriend bringing her flowers, candy, and declaration of love, but that wouldn't get her anywhere. Neither would telling the truth.

It hurt her all the more, because it probably wouldn't have gotten to her any other normal day of the week, or under different circumstances.

Kagome angrily launched her bag over the side of the Bone Eaters well, and then herself, where upon she found Inuyasha approaching with his arms warmly tucked away from the cool air in their usual position. He'd heard her coming up the well, crying and yelling at no one in particular, sensing something very off with her.

She paused to watch him, one of the last people she wanted to see when she arrived to the Feudal Era. Had it been anyone else, she might've been able to stomach it all, but seeing him coming to get her was just too much to cap everything off.

Already she heard her friends prodding her about her bad-ass boyfriend, the one that was cheating on her and who's love for her went undeclared, but they were together, he was still really her boyfriend... in a way. Why didn't he love her ...? Why didn't he hug her...? He didn't get her anything for Valentine's day? Oh, he must've gotten the other woman something, he must have at least gone to see her. What a no-good creep! Keeping poor Kagome on the side like that, being so selfish and foppish... a two-timer...

She'd have to make up stories and come up with all kinds of explanations and defend a boyfriend she never actually officially had to begin with while playing off that she didn't like him, and to go through all of those stories of romance and lovers holding hands all at the same time ...realizing her situation wasn't too far off from all the bad stuff her friends accused her of, but not exactly the same either.

Then she realized he hadn't arrived on time to assist her and that broke the straw on the camel's back for one emotionally exhausted school girl.

"Hey, wha-"

"Thanks for your help, much appreciated." She spat, half-tempted to sit the hanyou for his ignorance of her huge carry-over bag. And of her.

He shot her a rather innocently puzzled look. Inuyasha tried to open his mouth to explain that he had just come to get her when she was popping out, but she interrupted again.

"You know, my bag is awfully weighty considering I packed you a week's worth of the Ramen you like so much along with food and condiments for all of us, and my text books from school and my sleeping bag and first aid and personal things... and it's not exactly easy to climb this thing and get over the edge much less without it." She went to lug the bag over her shoulder once more, but Inuyasha grabbed it. Kagome darted him a sharp glance and tugged it back to her.

"I can carry it myself." Frustrated tears began to spill over reddened cheeks while scarce snow flakes fell and seemed to burn when they touched her face.

"Like fuck if I'm going to let you after the Mother of all guilt trips you just laid on me." He yanked the bag by it's handle at the top instead of one of the arm straps, pulling her with it.

"If you need some girl to bestow your masculine chivalry upon, I believe she's somewhere off in a distant woodland waiting to drag you to the depths of hell."

That yellow back sack never before hit the ground so fast or with such violent force.

"What the hell did you just say to me?" He inquired with a failing controlled tone, half in disbelief, half in anger. Inuyasha had no idea where this attitude of hers was coming from, but he was damned if he was going to be the victim of it.

"You heard me! You're a huge jerk! The biggest pig-headed, arrogant, brainless jerk in all of existence! I should have accepted that date from Houjo and stayed an extra week... heck, hanging out with Kouga seems fun in retrospect! I wonder where he is... So help me you'd better hope he doesn't come around today of all days!"

She glared at him a moment before turning around in a huff. Black hair flipped behind her against the slight wind as she paced away in an upset daze, breathing heavily through her nose and trying hard to control more tears.

"Inconsiderate, brash, impolite, impulsive..." The words faded with her distance, but each stuck with the very confused and highly disconcerted hanyou and his sensitive hearing as she left him behind, left eye twitching violently.

Inuaysha was absolutely fuming. Kagome came out of nowhere, totally unlike herself... crying and accusing him with colourful names and hurtful comments. "Biggest Jerk in all of Existence?" What the fuck? She considered him worse than Naraku himself, now, did she? Was that what she meant? The girl was so bold as to forget all of the times he saved her sorry ass, to waive the fact that they were friends _and_ he'd actually let her get close to him... ?

She actually dare go below the belt so as to try and dupe him with a Kikyou comment. To make him jealous using Kouga,.. and whatever she said about that "Hou-jo" person?

She wasn't going to get away with attacking him in such ways without a good reason and making him feel like pond scum with her crocodile tears. She needed a damn good explanation.

Kagome didn't think he would honestly leave her alone for very long, looking up expectantly at the sound of familiar huffing and twig-breaking stomps approaching. She had found a tree stump cut down low in the forest before the break to the village to sit and think on, hoping to regain her cool.

"You look here, wench." A very angry Inuyasha barked, pulling the sleeves of his haori and underlying white kimono up to his elbows. "I don't know where you get off spouting all of that crap, but you sure as hell better take every ounce of it back!"

"Is that so?" She challenged him, shooting up an eyebrow. "And just what are you going to do about it if I don't?"

The hanyou stopped, wondering if she was making a reference to the subjugation.

"I don't care how many times you use that stupid spell on me, if it's your only defense. Use it all the fuck you want, it ain't gonna stop me from talking!"

"Hmph. Like I thought it would." She murmured under her breath, turning her head away. To her surprise, however, Inuyasha had caught the underside of her chin with his hand. He forced her to look him in the eye as he crouched down, then left only the top appendage of his index finger curled under the soft skin. He made sure he was too close for the girl to get too haughty on him again.

"What is your problem?"

"...What problem?" She swallowed. He was so near, she could feel his hot breath hitting her lips. The low tone and type of contact he'd taken on didn't help her composure either.

"Gee, I think that's why I'm here asking _you_."

"I don't _have_ a problem."

"You could've fooled _me_. All that yelling and crying, and everything you said. Like I'm worse than our enemies...or totally worthless." Those last words dripped with a little pain.

Kagome did a double take, looking a little taken back.

"This time I don't think I did anything wrong." Inuyasha stood up, ran a hand through his bangs and began pacing somewhat back and forth as if to control his temper. "I don't get it! I didn't say a damn word to you before you started hackin' at me." He stuck out his pinky and sharply applied his index finger on the other hand to it for her to see that he was counting. He ticked off remaining fingers and his thumb in the same way, each as he continued. "I didn't look at you funny, didn't ignore you, didn't try to lech you or any other girl, didn't make you come back from your time early. Not a _damn thing_ besides bein' a little late. So what the hell happened that justifies treating me like I don't care a fucking two shits about you?"

Her face had taken on a troubled, shaken look during his delivery. Inuyasha regretfully knew it too well.

He said he cared. In his own way, albeit, but he said it.

_He's right... He's done nothing. _She looked down in a wince, ashamed of herself for her selfish outbursts. _It's not his fault I feel lonely... he made his plans clear to me and _I_ chose to stay. Not that he exactly pushed me away, but it was still my choice..._

Kagome had no idea that she was actually capable of hurting his feelings and forgetting something so important... their spoken agreement and the touch that sealed it... though she knew that was no excuse. She had been so mad and resentful of the circumstances surrounding her life, with Valentine's Day, at her lack of relationship, lack of romance, lack of intimacy... their intimacy. And she blamed him when there was no blame to be given.

"I..." she began quietly, looking down at her hands as they clutched at her sailor fuku skirt. Tears pooled at her eyes and threatened to fall. "I'm sorry..." An apology for all the girl said seemed too meager, but it was all she had to offer her companion. Had she known how senseless she'd been, she wouldn't have ever opened her mouth to begin with.

Immediately he turned his head aside, though let his eyes linger on her knotted eyebrows and bitten-back lips for a moment before coming to rest on the snow dusted forest ground beneath them. The scent of salty water teased his nose for the second time that afternoon, though this time it managed to cool his anger. He felt bad for reaping the exact response he had initially hoped for... but was glad that he made her understand.

"Apology accepted..." He offered her a hand to help her get up to her feet. "..._If_ you tell me what had you all hot and bothered."

Kagome looked up and smiled softly through her tears, to which he visibly repressed a smirk and a wince of his own.

_This is his way of helping me even after what I did... of course... _

"Com'on. It's getting cold and you insist on prancin' around in that skirt like it's summer for fuck's sake."

She placed her hand against the hanyou's and when they both had a good grip, he gently pulled her until she drew to standing position.

"Inuyasha?"

"Eh?"

He turned his head to Kagome, who bit her bottom lip while he watched her for a few moments. Just when he was about to ask her why she was dawdling, she suddenly leaned forward and lightly brushed his cheek with her lips. Surprising the hell out of him. _And_ herself.

"I'm really... sorry that I said all of those things. I just was upset because... it's a very important day back home, and I didn't think I had reason enough to celebrate it with everyone else." The feel of their hands still joined was extremely nostalgic, linking her back to a time when she promised she would always stay by the side of the boy whom she loved, if that was what he wanted. Even though he didn't say so directly, it was obviously what he desired. She would have been gone if the opposite were true. Today would have proven it.

It was the first time she recalled the meaning of that special moment.

He slowly returned his gaze from the ground to her eyes, unable to respond in abash. Both their hearts pummeled against their chests, and their touching palms became noticeably dank.

"I'm sorry that I..."

Inuyasha cracked the smallest smile he could manage, and resisted the urge to leave her hand free so he might put his arm about her waist.

"Keh... It's in the past. Just... leave it and make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Mm!"

Amidst her new founded happiness, Kagome couldn't help but sigh somewhere inside. _He'd better remember this when he decides to open his mouth the next time Kouga comes around..._

They walked a snowy path back to the village, side by side, hand in hand... Feeling the pulse of each other's heart... The inviting glow of each other's warmth... The rushing sensation of their auras dancing perfectly together... Engaged in their physical symbol that they had indeed always had each other despite their many misunderstandings now matter how irrational or viable they may be.

Never realizing their fingers entwined tightly somewhere along the way, because it was just so natural...

Never realizing the true smiles on their faces gave them away, because it was just that easy...

Never realizing they were still carrying on together in spite of everything and anything...

Just as they had done once before.

_We all forget, sometimes... _

-fin-

**AN:** I really pressed myself to write anything at all that would come to me. And the only thing that really seemed fitting for a Valentine's Day Inu Theme was this.

If you think Kagome's OOC in this, you're probably right from a few different POV's; but I don't think it's because she's actually OOC, just that no one is used to seeing her so angry anymore, which leads her to appear to be an uninteresting Mary Sue character beyond her relationship with Inuyasha. I thought she needed to get a little angry off and have a bout of senselessness like we all do sometimes when under pressure, and remind everyone that she's still a character that is capable of having hurt feelings and **not being a Mary Sue**. I just don't know if I communicated it that well ;

I couldn't make it extremely fluffy and "OMG eYe 3 U 4eVA" like- I'm sorry. It's just not my thing.

Please Review.

**Thank you**


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